


Tear Out The Pages

by always_addicted



Category: teen wolf - Fandom
Genre: Alternate Reality, Drama, M/M, Murder, Romance, deputy!Stiles, ex-con!derek
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-02-03
Updated: 2013-02-03
Packaged: 2017-11-28 02:34:05
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 6
Words: 19,656
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/669247
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/always_addicted/pseuds/always_addicted
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>When Derek Hale is arrested for the murder of Allison Argent, Deputy Stiles Stilinski isn't completely convinced he's guilty. And that has absolutely nothing to do with how much he wants to rub Derek's stubble covered face all over his body.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> *re-posting from my old account*

Stiles sighed as he placed another Reese’s cup in his mouth. If someone had told him eighteen months ago, that actually, all his hard work and effort would end up with him sitting behind a desk during night duty, he would’ve become a mall cop instead. At least then he’d see more action. But no. Instead, as the youngest deputy in the town, he was forced to sit night after night behind the front desk, staring at the walls and waiting for something, anything exciting to happen. But it never did. He’d been here a year now and as of yet, not one member of the public had walked through that door after 9pm.

And he had another [three](545931/chapters/971784) weeks before he went back onto days. He only did one week of days out of every four since it was in his contract to do both. However, Jackie, who only graduated a year before him, could only work one week of nights of the four – something to do with childcare. Stiles had pointed out to his father, the Sheriff, numerous times that he had a cat that required more love and attention than he was currently getting. But even if he was in charge, his Dad told him that there was nothing he could do. Not until they got some new probies.

So there he was eating all the candy he could get his hands on and wondering if he could muster the energy to do another sudoku puzzle when the call came in.

A body had been found in the woods. An actual dead body. In the woods.

Stiles immediately flew into action, running into the back to wake up Frank and Jimmy, the only other two on duty that night, before running back out front to begin calling in the troops – including his Dad.

However, as Stiles began to actually realise that someone had died, that there might be a homicide investigation about to start, that this was exactly what he had trained for, his father shot him down. Apparently they needed someone to ‘man the fort’ and help coordinate things from there. Stiles tried to argue, tried to make his Dad see that he would be of better use out in the field, but it was no use. He was ordered to[continue](545931/chapters/971784) phoning everyone and informing them to meet at Hunter’s Peak where the body had been discovered.

Then Stiles waited. And waited. And waited some more.

It wasn’t until the sun started to rise and he realised his shift would be ending soon that the others came back. And they weren’t on their own.

In pairs, they dragged in what could only be described as Beacon Hills’ very own biker gang. But that was using the [term](545931/chapters/971784) very loosely. Only half of them actually drove let alone had bikes. They were just petty criminals who were occasionally violent when they had too much to drink. Stiles couldn’t help but wonder why they had all been brought in.

“What’s going on?” he asked when he spotted his Dad.

As the Sheriff stepped over to him, a small blonde in handcuffs whipped her head round to look at him, grinning ferally when she recognised him.

“Hey Stiles,” she said, flexing her body towards him, her rather impressive – even he couldn’t deny that – breasts almost bouncing out of her tiny top. “If I knew you’d look so good in uniform I would’ve come in sooner.”

Stiles did his best not to let his embarrassment show. “Thanks Erica,” he said, leaning back against his desk. “Wish I could repay the compliment, but –”

Erica scowled at him, but was dragged away before she could reply. She and Stiles had dated in their junior year. Back when things had been simple and he’d been so in love he didn’t think twice before giving her his virginity. Of course then she’d met Boyd, got involved in some not so legal activities and ended up in juvie. When she’d been released he made it clear he didn’t want anything to do with her – not to mention his father had forbidden it – as he still wanted to be a cop. That and he hadn’t been so much interested in girls anymore. She hadn’t taken it well and made the remainder of his high school career a living nightmare. The term ‘pencil dick’ still made him flinch.

“Stiles,” his Dad said as he approached the desk. “I need you to do me a favour and call these kids’ parents,” he told him as he pointed to a couple of very scared looking teenagers.

“They okay?” Stiles asked.

“They found the body,” the Sheriff explained. “She had gang colours on, hence all this.”

“You think it’s gang related?”

“Not really. But one of them has to know what she was doing out there.”

Stiles nodded and gestured over to the kids to join him behind the desk. They shuffled over and waited quietly as he called their parents to come and get them. It didn’t take that long. Both sets of parents burst through the door within seconds of each other. His Dad came back to talk to them and get them to sign some release forms while Stiles took the empty cups of cocoa he had made for the kids into the kitchen.

He couldn’t imagine what it must be like to see a dead body like that when all you had been expecting was to have some happy make out sessions. They were only fifteen. He hadn’t seen his first dead body until he was twenty-one. And even then it’d been in a controlled environment in the morgue… and he still puked up all over his shoes.

“You’ll be okay,” Stiles said to them. “But just stay away from the woods in future. I’m sure your parents will be more than happy to let you make out in your rooms from now on.”

“Not likely,” the boy said, looking at his shoes.

“Sure they will. Just play on the whole ‘you’re too traumatised to go outside’ thing. Works like a charm,” he said with a smile.

Both the teens gave him a small smile in return that was cut off as their parents reappeared. They said their thanks and quickly ushered their children home.

“Stiles, why don’t you head home early?” his Dad said. “We’re gonna need you to do some door knocking later.”

Stiles sighed. At least he’d get out of the station. “Sure, Dad, just call if you need anything.”

“Will do son,” his Dad said with a small smile before disappearing into the back.

Rubbing a tired hand over his face, Stiles grabbed his stuff and headed for the exit. Hopefully one day he’d get to see some action. At least he could go home and crawl into his bed and feel sorry for himself there.

On his way home, he stopped by the twenty-four hour convenience store. He needed a few things like milk, bread and kitty litter. It was probably best to get it now, rather than wait and not have the time to later. As he made his way round the store, he wasn’t surprised by its emptiness. It was still the early hours of the morning. Actually, he was surprised it could afford to stay open. He swore the only night time shoppers were those in the emergency services and in a town like Beacon Hills, that wasn’t many.

However, as he turned into the homeware aisle in search for a new toilet brush – don’t ask – he was surprised to see none other than Derek Hale standing staring at floor cleaner. Stiles recognised him straight away, what with the tall, dark and oh so hot Stiles might just die right there. Derek had always been the same. They’d been on the lacrosse team in school together, although Derek had been two years older and Stiles hadn’t seen him since he’d left for college.

“Derek?” he asked as he approached. “You need a little help there buddy?”

Derek turned to look at him, the blank stare of non recognition quickly changing into one of guarded defence as he took in Stiles’ uniform.

“Stiles Stilinski,” Stiles said. “We were on the team together in high school.”

Derek nodded his head a little before turning back to the floor cleaner and selecting the make of his choice. As he reached out, Stiles noticed that the back of his knuckles were bruised and split open in some places. It was then that Stiles realised the irregularity of someone buying floor cleaner at four-thirty in the morning.

“You been in a fight or something?” Stiles asked gesturing to his hands.

“Or something,” Derek replied before turning and stalking down the aisle towards the checkout.

Stiles watched him go, a feeling of unease crawling over his skin. He was tempted to call his Dad and tell him about it all, ask if Derek had a record. But, he knew his Dad would be swamped so he decided to sleep on it and check it out himself the next night.

 

~*~*~*~*~*~

After waking up to a soft paw on his face and the distinct sound of purring, the cat apparently wanting attention, Stiles had a quick lunch/breakfast and headed back to the station. When he got there, he was pleased to see that his Dad’s secretary Anne-Marie had sent him home earlier for some well needed rest.

“Any luck with the others?” Stiles asked pointing towards the cells.

“They all had air tight alibis,” she told him. “So it’s back to the drawing board.”

“What killed her anyway?”

Anne-Marie fished through a pile of manila folders on her desk and handed him one. “Coroner’s preliminary report,” she said.

Stiles grinned. The best thing about being an actual cop now was that he was actually allowed to look at this stuff.

Saying his thanks, he took the folder over to his underused desk, waving his hand in acknowledgment when she told him he’d better return it. The victim had been identified as Allison Argent; a college student in the next town over, studying for her masters degree in European History. By all accounts she was a smart, quiet girl who had moved to Beacon Hills with her family a few years ago. The worst thing though, was that she was home schooled otherwise, she would’ve been in Stiles’ class. Hell, if she was as smart as this report said, then he probably would’ve been good friends with her. A part of him was glad he wasn’t, but another part was sad because if she maybe had more friends in town, then she might not have gotten mixed up with the wrong kind of people and ended up dead in the woods.

The coroner’s report said the cause of death appeared to be inconclusive, but that she had multiple injuries, both from blunt force trauma and a sharp object all over her body. She had also recently had sexual intercourse, but it wasn’t forced – so she had a boyfriend that they needed to find. Looking at the pictures taken, Stiles felt his stomach turn at the dark bruises on her neck. It might not have been the cause of death, but someone had clearly had their hand wrapped around her throat. Someone male as the expanse of the bruises were too large to be female.

After reading through the file twice and taking a few notes, Stiles turned on his computer and began his search on Derek Hale. There was nothing in the state database apart from a couple of speeding tickets from high school. But when he did a national search, that’s when he hit the jackpot.

The state of New York had quite a lot on Derek. New York had been where Derek’s sister had been attending law school, so he must’ve followed her there. But it said here, that he’d been majoring in English Literature, not something Stiles would’ve expected as a pre-law subject. All of the Hales were lawyers of some kind, having companies on both the East and West coast. So to see that Derek hadn’t been aiming towards going to law school before he got his criminal record was a bit of a surprise. And what a record it was.

He had been convicted of aggravated assault in the first degree. However, with no priors and pleading guilty, he had managed to get the minimum sentence and served two thirds of it. He’d been released just three months ago for ‘good behaviour’. Still... assault in the first degree. That was a B class felony. The only thing worse would be murder, and if he was such a violent man then he was more than likely capable of making that step.

“Oh crap!”

“What?”

Stiles jumped at the sound of his father’s voice.

“Why aren’t you out knocking doors like I asked?” he demanded to know before glancing at Stiles’ computer. “And why the hell are you looking at Derek Hale’s police record?”

“He did it!” Stiles shouted, making everyone turn to look at him. His Dad just gave him a raised eyebrow. “No seriously, he did time for aggravated assault. He just got back to Beacon Hills. He probably lives with his uncle up in the woods ‘cause who would rent their property to an ex con?! And, I saw him at the store last night and he looked like he’d been in a bare knuckle fight.”

His Dad frowned and looked at the computer. “What’s his motive?”

“I don’t know. Maybe he’s the boyfriend. Maybe she was breaking up with him and he got angry. Maybe he didn’t need a reason?”

The Sheriff stared down at him for a second, Stiles doing his best to try and persuade his Dad with his eyes that Hale was their guy before finally, the Sheriff grunted at him and turned around.

“Anne-Marie, get me Judge Matherson on the phone. We’re gonna need a warrant.”

Stiles wanted to jump for joy. His Dad usually dismissed his ‘hunches’, so for him to take his suggestion on board, well it meant a lot to him. But then again, on paper, Derek Hale looked pretty damn guilty. It would be stupid not to at least bring him in for questioning.

However, Stiles excitement soon diminished when his Dad informed him that he wouldn’t be going with them to make the arrest, that he was to stay at the station and guard the front desk, as Jackie, who had come in last night with everyone else, had gone home to sleep.

“I can’t believe this!” he shouted an hour later when the warrant had been faxed through and they were all getting ready to go. “I crack this case wide open and I get made to wait behind?! How is that fair?”

“Stiles,” the sheriff sighed, “you know as well as I do, that if this doesn’t go by the book, if we mess up one little bit, that Peter Hale will destroy us.”

Stiles froze. “You’re saying I can’t do my job?”

“That’s not what I meant…”

“No, it’s fine,” Stiles said as he sat down behind the front desk. “I mean, I only graduated top of my class in high school, college and the academy,” he added as he logged on to the computer. “But whatever. I’m sure things will run a lot more smoothly without me.”

“Look, all I meant was that you’ve never had to deal with anything like this. It’s best to let us with experience do it.”

“I’m not even going to comment on how my lack of experience is no ones fault but yours,” Stiles told him before grabbing all the ‘in’ mail and turning to put them all in the correct pigeon holes.

“Stiles,” his Dad said, sounding exhausted. But for once, Stiles wasn’t in the mood to talk and just completely ignored his Dad until he heard him and everyone else leave.

He knew his Dad was only trying to protect him, that he hadn’t even wanted Stiles to join the force in the first place. But Stiles couldn’t imagine doing anything else. He’d idolised his Dad so much and had always wanted to follow in his foot steps – apart from that summer he wanted to be a ballerina princess, but the less said about that the better. He just wished that he had joined a force in a different county. Maybe even state. Perhaps then he’d actually be able to progress with his career.

As he finished sorting through the mail and generally tidying up the front desk, he seriously considered logging on to the computer to look for a viable transfer. But, he wasn’t sure if he could leave his Dad. He’d felt bad enough when he moved into his own apartment on the other side of town, he doubted he would actually survive the guilt if he moved to a whole other town or state. So he was stuck.

Fortunately, before he could let himself get too down about his current position, his Dad and a couple of the detectives returned, dragging one Derek Hale in with them.

“Stiles, I need you to book Mr Hale here,” his Dad said, leaving Stiles and one of the detectives with him.

“Uh, sure,” Stiles nodded.

He usually wouldn’t be the one to do the booking, normally that would be done by one of the sergeants, but he guessed with so many of their officers being called in last night that they were pretty short handed. That and out of everyone at the station, he was the only one who had done it recently having booked the few drink drivers and bar brawlers on his night shifts over the past few months.

“This way,” he said to the detective who pushed Derek Hale in front of him as they followed Stiles towards the cells.

There was a desk just before the holding area that had everything he needed, and thankfully, the computer was still on from the night before. He really hadn’t been looking forward to standing there in an awkward silence as it booted up.

“Okay, Derek,” Stiles said as he grabbed the clipboard from the side and motioned for the detective to bring him forward. “You have been read your rights?” Derek gave him a small nod. “Well at this time I would to reiterate that you do not need to say anything, but should you remain silent this may harm your defence. And anything you do say may be used against you in a court of law. Do you understand?” Again, Derek just nodded, obviously choosing to remain silent.

Stiles refrained from rolling his eyes as he began to fill out the paperwork. When Derek refused to speak to give any personal information, not even his date of birth, Stiles had to empty his wallet to find his ID. Of course, upon doing so he found the usual condom, but when he discovered a small sachet of lube, he couldn’t help but raise his eyebrows in surprise. Derek though, he just gave him a shrug, as if it was perfectly normal to carry lubricant in ones’ wallet.

“Guess it’s good to be prepared,” Stiles said as he made a note of the wallet’s contents as well as the cell phone they found in his other pocket. All the while, wondering why – if he was the boyfriend – an apparent straight guy would carry lube with him.

Once Stiles finished taking his finger prints and a mouth swab for DNA, he nodded to the now very bored looking detective. “He’s all yours.”

As he was dragged away, Derek let his eyes linger on Stiles. He probably knew that it was Stiles’ fault he’d been arrested. Or at least suspected it. But Stiles couldn’t care less. He was just doing his job. And if Derek was innocent, then hoorah for him. But really, with the whole dark and brooding ‘bad boy’ look Derek had going on – Stiles swore it wasn’t like that in school. In fact, he distinctly remembers a lot of khaki being worn – people were bound to think the worst of him. Just like everyone thought he was a saint because he wore a uniform.

Hoping that they at least got something useful, Stiles made quick work of entering all of Derek Hale’s information into their system before printing off a paper copy of his New York State record and putting it all together in a nice neat folder ‘cause y’know, he might not do anything exciting, but it didn’t mean he couldn’t take pride in his work.


	2. Chapter 2

Derek was innocent.

Or rather that’s what his lawyer, the one and only Jackson Whittemore said.

Derek’s uncle, a lawyer like the rest of the Hales, was partners with Jackson’s father. Together, they had set up an office in the city a few hours drive away. As a small, relatively quiet town, there wasn’t much work for defence lawyers in Beacon Hills, unlike in the city, where they happened to be very successful. And of course like Stiles, Jackson had followed in his father’s footsteps and joined the family business.

Stiles had been in the same class as Jackson at school and they had more or less hated each other on sight. Correction; Jackson hated Stiles. He had made Stiles’ life hell from the word go. Stiles thought it probably had to do with the fact that his Dad was the Sheriff and Jackson’s a defence lawyer. If the sheriff had a few choice words to say about Mr Whittemore from time to time, then you could be sure as hell bet that Mr Whittemore had some interesting things to say about Stiles’ father. They just weren’t supposed to like each other and never had. The fact that there still remained a mutual loathing was evident as Jackson stood behind his client while Derek signed the forms to collect his belongings.

“Still working behind the front desk, Stilinski?” Jackson smirked.

“What can I say?” Stiles started as he took the forms back from Derek and handed over his things, “must be my welcoming smile,” he said with his biggest grin.

“Yeah, just ‘cause Daddy…”

“Jackson,” Derek said quietly, not even looking over his shoulder as he slid his wallet – lube and all – into his back pocket.

Jackson immediately shut his mouth, looking thoroughly chastised and making Stiles grin even wider as he turned back to Derek.

“Okay, Mr Hale,” Stiles then said. “You’re to return here tomorrow night to [sign in](../../545931/chapters/980427) and every second night thereafter,” he told him. “As you remain a person of interest in the murder of Allison Argent, I need to inform you at this time that if you choose to cross state lines without the permission of the sheriff’s department, you will be arrested on sight. Do I make myself clear?”

“Very,” Derek nodded.

He’d already been told all of this earlier by the sheriff himself. While they had a suspected motive and opportunity, they had no actual evidence. There was no murder weapon at the house or in the woods, Derek’s bruised knuckles were from an [accident](../../545931/chapters/980427) at work and the floor cleaner because he had spilled some beer on his uncle’s living room carpet. So until they found evidence that pointed towards someone else, he had to present to the police station every forty eight hours.

He should of course, have been attending during the day, but he worked six days a week and wouldn’t have been able to leave to come in. Jackson had been adamant that Derek was being victimised and inconvenienced enough and if the sheriff wanted Derek to comply, he would allow him to attend in the evenings after work. Which meant Stiles would be dealing with him.

“Jackson, go wait in the car,” Derek said.

“Derek, I don’t think –ˮ

“Now, Jackson,” and boy did Stiles love the way Derek could just boss him about like that.

Stiles gave Jackson a cheery little wave as he walked out before turning back to Derek, wondering why Derek wanted to be on his own.

“It was you right?” Derek said. “After you saw me last night. You told them it was me.”

It wasn’t a question. It was a statement. Derek was clearly anything but stupid. He was however, definitely scary.

“Are you threatening me?” Stiles asked, doing his best to remain calm.

“No, Deputy, I’m not. But now I know where we both stand.”

Derek turned toward the door, but Stiles stopped him just before he left. “If it had been anyone else, I would’ve done the same. It wasn’t personal.”

Derek gave him a small nod and quickly left.

Once he was gone, Stiles cleaned up the front desk and headed home for a couple of hours rest before he had to head back in for the night shift. Or rather, that’s what he had intended but after a text from his best friend Scott, he drove over to his instead.

Scott was a veterinary nurse and lived a few blocks from the station and who’s on again, off again boyfriend Isaac was an amazing cook. Stiles had always thought it a little unusual that both he and Scott had ended up gay. But then Scott had pointed out that it wouldn’t have been weird if they were both straight, which, y’know, point.

Scott and Isaac were currently on again and Isaac had bribed Stiles with his ‘Special’ cannelloni in return for some confirmation on the town gossip going around about the Argent girl and Derek Hale.

When he got to Scott’s, he was greeted by his dog, Stumpy. He was a rescue dog and only had three legs. Still, he didn’t let that stop him from nearly jumping onto Stiles’ shoulders as he walked through the door.

“What the Hell are you feeding him?” Stiles asked Scott as he all but wrestled with Stumpy on the floor.

“Just the same as usual,” Scott said. “He’s just excited to see you. It’s been weeks dude.”

“Sorry,” Stiles said, finally getting up. “Been busy with work.”

He hadn’t been busy, not if you didn’t count the past two days. He was just lazy and it required a lot of effort to sustain a social life when one worked night shift almost constantly.

“So what’s been happening?” Scott asked.

Stiles rolled his eyes. So much for the pleasantries. “You know I can’t tell you.”

“Rumour has it you guys arrested Derek Hale,” Isaac said from his place beside the kitchen island.

“Yeah well –ˮ Stiles, trailed off with a shrug, knowing he could only tell them the basics or else he’d get into huge trouble and potentially jeopardise the entire case. “He’s been released on bail.”

“Really?” Scott asked. “Why?”

“Lack of evidence.”

“He did it though right?” Isaac asked.

Stiles took a moment to think about it, to consider what Derek’s motive was supposed to be and the whole ‘boyfriend’ theory, which after seeing what Derek carried around in his pocket with him, didn’t seem all that likely any more.

“I thought for sure it was him,” Stiles said, throwing himself down onto the couch. “Now I’m not so sure at all.”

“So who did then?” Scott asked as he joined him.

Again Stiles shrugged. “That’s the job of the detectives to find out. Just man the desk, remember?”

Scott rolled his eyes, having heard Stiles’ ‘woe is me’ speech more than enough times.

“Never mind the murder,” Isaac said as he shoved the cannelloni in the oven and stood up straight. “I also heard that Hale is just as hot, if not hotter than he was in school.”

“You’ve no idea,” Stiles said with a nod. “The dude’s got this whole stubble thing going for him,” he added, trailing off as he thought about just how hot Derek actually was. “I wonder if he got any tattoos when he was in prison,” he mused to himself.

“He was in prison?” Scott asked, Stiles silently cursing himself for giving away that tid bit of information. “You’re not having one of your cop-prisoner fantasies are you?”

“Ew, no,” Stiles said, hitting Scot on the head with one of the cushions. “That would be totally wrong and an abuse of my power.”

“Ah,” Isaac said. “So, that’s how it is.”

“That’s how what is?” Stiles frowned.

“You don’t want to be the ‘dominator’, but instead want him to dominate you. Maybe let him cuff you to the bed and have his wicked, ex con way with you,” Isaac added with a grin that was pure evil.

Stiles was about to argue, to tell Isaac to shut up and remember that he still had to see Derek Hale every other day. But he knew by then that arguing with them and denying it was pointless, so he instead threw himself face down onto the couch and buried his face in a cushion.

“I’m not going to be able to look him in the face next time I see him,” he groaned. “So much for being professional.”

“Just stare at his ass instead,” Isaac said. “Problem solved.”

“And whatever you do,” Scott added, “don’t ask him to spank you.”

Stiles groaned into the cushion before sitting up and declaring that he hated them both and hoped they burned in hell.

 

~*~*~*~*~*~

The first time Derek came to sign in, not much was said to each other beyond the obligatory “sign there”. Derek obviously didn’t want to be there any longer than he had to be and Stiles wasn’t going to keep him if he didn’t have to. Even if he did look beyond hot in his work overalls and tighter than tight t-shirt. Seriously, Stiles was tempted to arrest him for just how obscene it was… and then he started hating himself for all but drooling over a suspected murderer.

The second time it was much of the same except that after wishing Derek good night, Stiles received a minute smile and a ‘you too’ in return. This carried on for the next week until Derek entered the station one night, phone to his ear and rolling his eyes.

“You’re a divorce lawyer,” he said as he approached the desk. “What the Hell do you know about criminal justice?”

Stiles raised his eyebrows in surprise, wondering just who Derek was talking too.

“Look, Laura, I gotta go,” Derek said, letting Stiles know that it was his sister he was speaking to. “The deputy is waiting. Stilinski, the same one as always,” he said with a sigh. “Yes, I have my very own, personal police officer. I’m going.”

Derek hung up and gave Stiles a small almost shy smile. “My sister,” he explained. “She says to say high and wants to know if you still hold the Beacon Hills High record for fitting the most marshmallows in your mouth?”

“Oh my God! I can’t believe you remember that!” Stiles said, jaw dropping in shock. “In fact, wasn’t your sister already in college when that happened?”

Derek shrugged. “I might have mentioned something about it,” he said. “I mean, makes a guy wonder what else you could fit in there.”

Stiles felt himself blush, and then he realised what Derek was trying to do. Or at least, he thought he’d figured it out. Stiles was the one who got Derek into this mess, or caught – whatever – and Derek was probably trying to get Stiles fired by saying it he had hit on him or something.

Ducking his head in embarrassment, Stiles grabbed Derek’s folder and pulled the sign in sheet from it. “Sign here,” he said quietly, handing Derek a pen.

Derek’s smile faltered a little as if wondering what he had done wrong. And that did make Stiles feel a little guilty – unless that was an act too – but he had to remain professional.

“So, how long will I have to keep coming here?” Derek asked, body language cold and unfriendly once more.

Stiles shrugged. “If no new evidence is found before the end of the initial twenty-eight days, then just over two more weeks. But Jackson should’ve told you that.”

“He did,” Derek said with a nod. “But Jackson’s an idiot. Thought it best to check,” he added as he handed back his sign in sheet.

Stiles took it from him and placed it on the desk by his hips. “If you want, I can give you the number of a very successful court appointed lawyer,” he joked, trying to lighten the mood a little.

Derek snorted in amusement and turned to leave, “Later, Deputy.”

“Derek,” Stiles called before he could disappear, “my record stood until last year. One of the cheerleaders broke it at homecoming.”

“A cheerleader?” Derek asked, grin back in place. “I’ll guess you’ll have to find a new way to make a name for yourself in this town.”

“Yeah, I guess,” and with that, Derek left.

Stiles couldn’t quite fathom what had just happened. Had Derek ‘I’m so hot my skin sizzles’ Hale been flirting with him? Probably not. He had probably just been in a good mood from speaking with his sister. At least he sincerely hoped that was the case and not that he was actually trying to get Stiles fired. ‘Cause that would suck.

Deciding not to dwell on it too much, or else he’d go mad, he instead sat down and opened up the ‘Argent Homicide’ investigation on his computer to see if any new evidence actually had come to light or not. Or would Derek forever remain their number one suspect?

Turned out that after asking around, the Argent girl had apparently started dating one of her classmates. Some dude named Matthew Daehler. This guy had a bit of a psychiatric record, having attempted to kill himself in high school, but he swore that he and Allison hadn’t gotten very far in their dating, that they had been taking it slow because she was still hung up on some guy. An older guy. He’d thought it might be one of their professors, but she’d sworn it was no one at the school so he couldn’t tell them much more at that.

Perhaps this ‘ex older man-boyfriend had gotten jealous that she had moved on and taken it out on her.

It didn’t completely rule out Derek as a suspect a he was technically older than the Argent girl, but if she had been in this relationship with the older man for longer than three months, then that would put Derek in the clear as he’d still been in prison.

Stiles quickly sent an email to his father stating so, hoping that in some way, it would help with the investigation and that they would actually find he girl’s killer. Not that he was completely one hundred percent convinced of Derek’s innocence, no matter how pretty he was. He just didn’t want the one who was actually guilty to get off with taking her life.

His Dad didn’t appreciate the email.

Stiles returned to work the next night to a rather curt reply asking why Stiles had given them their prime suspect, only to turn round and start defending him? Stiles couldn’t exactly tell him that it was because he liked his smile so sent him a fifteen hundred word reply on the reasons why police officers should look at every piece of evidence and that if he picked up on the small detail of the length of Argent’s relationship with her older lover being unknown, you could be pretty sure that Derek’s defence lawyers would too.

He didn’t receive another reply to that, so he assumed that his father was heeding his advice and getting someone to check it out.

Satisfied that he was finally being taken seriously – that or his Dad just didn’t want another essay length reply – he set about doing his work for the evening, first point of duty, ordering pizza for himself and the other on duty officers. It was a Saturday night and as such, a tradition to eat as much junk food as was possible before a call came in.

While he waited for the pizza to arrive, he began sorting through the ‘in’ and ‘out’ mail. It was really a job that Jackie should be doing during the day, but she never did or she did it wrong and he’d have to redo it anyway. There was an extraordinarily large amount for a Saturday and he was just bemoaning this fact when the door opened.

“Yes!” he shouted, not looking up from the mail in his hand. “I cannot begin to tell you how happy my mouth is to see you right now.”

“Uh, thank you. My mouth is happy to see you too,” a voice that definitely didn’t belong to the pizza boy said.

Stiles spun, dropping his mail to see Derek standing there grinning at him. Derek who was wearing his work overalls around his hips and what should’ve been a white wife beater, but was covered in smudges of dirt clinging to his body. His arm, neck and face were in a similar state. Not to mention his shoulders were just bulging. He was one hundred percent, completely and utterly boner inducing.

“I thought you were the pizza boy,” Stiles absolutely did not squeak.

Derek frowned. “You’re having an affair with the pizza boy?”

“What? No. He’s like seventeen. And pimply. And just no,” he said as Derek chuckled softly at him.

It was at that point, said pizza boy walked into the station. “Where’d you want these, Deputy?” he asked.

“Leave the chicken supreme here and take the rest through the back please,” Stiles said, buzzing him through.

Once he was gone, Stiles turned back to Derek. “If you give me my sheet, I’ll leave you and the pizza alone to get better acquainted,” he said to Stiles.

“You’re funny,” Stiles said as he handed Derek his sign in sheet.

As Derek went through the usual process, Stiles grabbed the pizza box and pulled out a slice. He slowly raised it to his mouth, relishing the beautiful, greasy aroma of melted cheese and undercooked dough before he opened his mouth to take his first bite. However, as his teeth clamped down, he noticed that Derek was just standing there watching him, eyes wide, lips parted and tongue flicking out to moisten his velvety soft looking lips.

“You want some?”

“What?” Derek asked, flicking his eyes up from where Stiles still had his mouth wrapped around his pizza slice.

“Pizza. Do you want some?” Stiles asked again after finally tearing off a large bite.

Derek dazedly reached forward and helped himself to some of Stiles’ pizza. He sniffed gingerly at it before taking a bit and letting out the most indecent moan Stiles had ever heard outside of porn – actually, including porn.

They both stood there eating in silence until the pizza boy came back out and gave Stiles a wave. Derek seemed to sober up pretty quickly then, finishing his slice – bar the crust – and giving Stiles a brilliant smile.

“See you on Monday?”

“Actually, no. I’m on days next week. So, you’ll be dealing with Jackie,” Stiles told him as he reached for another slice.

“You mean you won’t be here for my last week?” Derek asked with a pout. “And I was hoping we could’ve celebrated together.”

Okay, Stiles didn’t care what anyone else said, that was definitely flirting.

“Well I’m free next Saturday night,” Stiles said in way of reply, ignoring his conscious that was screaming ‘murder suspect’ at him.

Derek gave him a small smile, eyes travelling up and own Stiles body before nodding. “I’ll keep that in mind,” he said and headed for the door.

Stiles knew he shouldn’t have done that, shouldn’t have basically made a date with not only a ex-con but someone who had quite possibly committed a violent murder very recently. He didn’t think anything would come of it. Derek was probably just one of these guys who couldn’t help but be nice or something. But if his Dad ever found out, there was no way he’d get away from the front desk. Ever.


	3. Chapter 3

After handing off a call about a suspicious looking vehicle to one of his colleagues who was sitting on ass doing nothing, Stiles headed back out to the front desk. To be honest, he didn’t actually think the vehicle would turn out to be suspicious at all since it was Mrs Fletcher who had called it in and she called in something ‘suspicious’ at least once a week. At least he didn’t actually have to follow it up. That was one [bonus](../../545931/chapters/992082)about being stuck behind the desk. But alas, the sight of Jackson Whittemore standing there in a shiny grey suit and douchebag shades made him wish that he actually could go visit Mrs Fletcher.

“What do you want?” Stiles asked with a huff.

“I’m here to see your father,” Jackson said with a smirk as he pulled his shades off. “He has some [documents](../../545931/chapters/992082) regarding my client.”

Stiles just raised an eyebrow at him before picking up the phone and calling through to his Dad’s office. “Whittemore’s here,” he said as Anne-Marie answered. “Yeah okay,” he added before hanging up. “Take a seat, the Sheriff will be out in a minute.”

Jackson looked at the seats behind him and made a face of disgust. “I’ll stand.”

Stiles just nodded before sitting down and turning towards his [computer](../../545931/chapters/992082). He didn’t actually have any work on there to do, but he wasn’t above pretending to avoid having to talk to Jackson.

Jackson however, had other ideas. “So how does it feel?”

“How does what feel?” Stiles asked, not looking up from his monitor as he logged on to his emails.

“Being so spectacularly wrong?”

Stiles whipped his head up to look at Jackson. The smirk was back in place and he was leaning over the desk to look down at Stiles. Literally and figuratively speaking.

“About what exactly?” Stiles asked as he stood up, making him just that little bit taller than the man in front of him. Thank all that was holy for work boots with thick soles.

“Derek,” Jackson clarified. “I mean, you broke the case, found the bad guy. Only he wasn’t actually the bad guy was he? He was still in prison when the Argent girl started her relationship with her lover. Pretty unprofessional just to go after a guy ‘cause he’s an ex con.”

Stiles bit the inside of his cheek to stop himself from reacting. The Argent girl had apparently been seeing her older lover since she’d moved back to Beacon Hills the year before. The text messages and call records dated back that far. Unfortunately, it was all to a disposable cell so they still had no idea who it was, just that it wasn’t Derek.

His Dad had told him last night over dinner that they were dropping the charges against Derek. What with the conflicting evidence going against them. Although Stiles knew he would still be watched closely until another suspect was found. In a way, Stiles was glad that Derek was more likely to be innocent than guilty, which meant he didn’t feel as bad about his inappropriate attraction. On the other hand, he knew that it would be upsetting for the Argents to learn, as they just wanted someone to be caught.

“Anything else?” he asked Jackson, knowing his lack of reaction would annoy the Hell out of him. Jackson didn’t answer, just sneered at him. “Well in that case, I have work to be getting on with.”

Sitting back down, Stiles studiously ignored Jackson, grateful that it only took another minute or so before his Dad appeared.

Thankfully, no time was wasted in handing over what Jackson had come for – probably a copy of the interrogation transcripts or something – and he was soon gone.

“Look, uh,” his Dad said as he approached the desk, “I just want you to know that it was a good call. Hale, I mean. Even though you were off the clock, you were still keeping your eyes open for anything unusual or suspicious and no matter what the outcome, that’s the kind of police officers we want.”

Stiles stared up at his father in surprise. “Um, thanks.”

His Dad nodded and moved to step away before turning back once more. “Just thought you should know I spoke to the mayor earlier. I’ve asked him to extend our budget. If we can’t get a new probie, I’ll see if we can push for a receptionist or something. Let you get out in the field more.”

Stiles felt warmth spread through his chest and a smile break out on his face. “I’ll keep everything crossed.”

“Good,” the Sheriff nodded, giving his son a warm smile and finally turned to walk back to his office.

 

~*~*~*~*~*~

The rest of the week went by rather slowly for Stiles. He didn’t see Derek anywhere or hear anyone even mention his name. They were all too busy looking into finding a new suspect than to bother questioning what Derek was doing now that he was in the clear. Stiles meanwhile, spent most of his time playing solitaire on the computer, having more or less been banned from the Argent case.

It wasn’t until he was packing up to go home on Saturday, debating with himself whether to order take out or actually make something for his dinner that he realised that it was indeed Saturday and only a week ago he had kind of, maybe sort of asked Derek Hale out on a date – ish.

However, having not heard anything from Derek, he guessed that the flirting had probably just been to either lull him in to a false sense of security before accusing him of harassment, or just a way to pass the time while being forced to attend the police station. Either way, he maybe wasn’t even interested in Stiles at all and had deliberately stayed away. It was probably a good thing. At least Stiles wouldn’t get into trouble this way.

Feeling completely sorry for himself, he decided on some Chinese take out, waving good night to Jackie before heading out to Mr Chan’s.

There was a bit of a line when he got there, but he now had his heart set on some dumplings so was prepared to wait. What he wasn’t prepared for however, was for a deep voice to whisper in his ear from behind saying; “Do you ever take your uniform off, Deputy?”

Stiles spun to see Derek smiling at him, a mischievous twinkle in his eye.

“What are you doing here?” he asked, trying not to blush as the double entendre of Derek’s question actually hit him.

“Probably the same as you,” Derek said with a shrug.

Stiles gave a small nod, noticing that Derek was in his work clothes again. “You just finish work?” he asked.

“Finally,” Derek nodded. “I’ve been on call the past two days, so haven’t really slept for the past forty-eight hours.”

“Bummer,” Stiles said, stepping towards the counter a little as he saw the line had depleted to just one person in front of him. “So uh, you won’t be out partying tonight then if you’re so tired?”

“I wasn’t planning on it. I was just going to watch a movie or something.”

Stiles knew, absolutely one hundred percent, deep down in his bones knew that he shouldn’t say what he was about to say, but Derek was just so hot and all the flirting had left Stiles wanting so much more. So he said it. “Would you like some company?”

Derek blushed. Derek actually, properly blushed. “I, um… my Uncle’s home.”

Stiles nodded. He knew that Peter Hale lived in the city during the week since that’s where his business was. But he always came back to Beacon Hills at the weekend. Stiles however, had his very own apartment where no uncles or Dad’s lived.

“We could go to mine?” he asked. “I have an extensive DVD collection, some call it an addiction, I call them uneducated heathens. Anyway, so I’ve got lots of movies to pick from. And the only person that might interrupt us is Geronimo.”

“Geronimo?” Derek asked with a raised eyebrow.

“My cat. He had this suicidal tendency to jump off of high surfaces when he was a kitten. Hence, Geronimo,” Stiles explained. “So?”

“Won’t you get into trouble?” Derek asked.

“What’s wrong with two guys hanging out, eating Chinese food and watching a movie?”

“Nothing I guess,” Derek said, a small smile on his lips.

“Awesome,” Stiles grinned just as the girl in front of him finished at the counter. “So, what do you want? My treat.”

Derek seemed to hesitate for a moment before nodding almost shyly. Stiles had to admit; it was rather refreshing to see an almost completely different side to Derek than he put on normally. This shyness, well it was cute. Giving Derek a smile in return, Stiles turned to give his order, leaning back and pulling Derek over by his wrist so he could add what he wanted onto it.

“So,” Stiles said once they had ordered and sat down to wait, “what exactly is it you do?” he asked as he gestured to Derek’s overalls.

“Plumber.”

“Plumber?” Stiles asked incredulously.

Derek shrugged. “It’s honest work.”

“Well yeah, but, don’t you need to train to do that? I thought you were an English major.”

Derek gave him a curious look. “How is that you know what my major was, but not what I do for a living?”

Stiles shrugged, “It was in your file,” he told him, a little embarrassed.

Fortunately, that just made Derek smile. “Part of my rehabilitation included an apprenticeship. We got to choose and I chose plumbing.”

“You actually chose it?”

“Carpentry was full,” Derek grinned.

Stiles found himself returning the gesture when their order was called. Stiles jumped up to grab it and paid with his card before he lead Derek out into the parking lot where they both hesitated next to their cars.

“Do you wanna just follow me or you should I just drive us both?”

“I admit, it would be a bit of a novelty to be riding upfront in a police car,” Derek said with a nod, “but I think I’ll follow you.”

Stiles tried not to let himself become uncomfortable at the reminder that Derek had recently been arrested. And by his father no less. “Okay, well let’s go.”

As Stiles pulled out of the parking lot, he started to feel the nerves rise. He had invited a convicted criminal to his home. He was making romantic overtures towards this criminal. And he knew that if anyone found out, whether said convict was guilty of the recent murder he had been accused of or not, he would be in so much shit that no matter how many orgasms he got out of it – if any – it just wouldn’t be worth it.

He didn’t even know why Derek had beaten the crap out of his victim in New York. Had the guy provoked him? Was he an ex lover who had tried to break up with him? Or had he just been some innocent bystander who had ‘looked’ at Derek in the wrong way?

And now Derek was following him home. Fuck.

When he pulled up outside his apartment, he took a few deep breaths to calm himself as Derek parked behind him. Taking a moment to finally calm his nerves and remember that he had a gun strapped to his hip, he grabbed the food and slipped out of the car.

Derek nodded as he walked over to him, hands in his pockets and bouncing nervously on his feet. “You okay?” he asked Stiles.

“Yeah, it’s just…” he trailed off as he looked around them to make sure no one was watching. “You’re right. I will get into trouble –ˮ

“I’ll leave,” Derek said, turning to head back to his car.

And that’s when Stiles realised that yeah, okay, he might not know Derek that well or why he did what he did, but he wanted to know him, wanted to find out what had driven this high school jock and college English major to commit such a violent crime. Also, the utter look of dejection his body was exuding managed to pull on all of Stiles’ heartstrings.

“Derek, wait!” Stiles called after him, waiting for Derek to turn around before he continued. “Let’s go upstairs. And you uh, and we can talk.”

Derek hesitated slightly, before nodding and slowly following Stiles inside.

Neither of them said anything as they made their way up to Stiles front door, nor was anything said as they made their way into the kitchen with the food. It wasn’t until Geronimo jumped up onto the worktop that either of them spoke.

“Mister, I know you did not just break rule two hundred and fifty one,” Stiles said as he turned to look right into the cat’s eyes. Geronimo, in reply, merely head butted him and started purring. “Damn you evil cat. You know that’s my weakness,” Stiles added, reaching out and scratching behind his ears.

The sound of Derek chuckling made him turn towards him and smile.

“Geronimo, meet Daddy’s friend Derek,” Stiles said as he lifted him up.

Derek reached out and petted him. “Friend huh?”

Stiles shrugged and put the cat down on the floor. “For starters, yeah,” he said with a small nod. “I figured we could at least get to know each other a little bit more. You know, past the whole deputy and … plumber façades.”

“What do you have in mind?” Derek asked as he pulled out a stool at the breakfast bar and sat down.

Stiles waited a few moments before speaking, handing Derek his food instead. But eventually he couldn’t put it off any longer. “Why did you do it?”

Derek, who had been in the process of grabbing his chopsticks, froze. “Do what?”

“In New York. That guy. I mean, did he attack you first or was it –ˮ

“My sister,” Derek interrupted. “He was her boyfriend. He wanted them to move in together, she didn’t. He then accused her of cheating on him and when she tried to break up with him he raped and beat her so badly that she had to take a year out of law school to recover.”

“Shit.”

“He got found not guilty.”

“What?” Stiles asked, in complete shock.

Derek rubbed at his face. “Something about her getting caught smoking weed in high school. I don’t know. I just remember his smug grin as he walked out of court. I don’t even remember going round to his house, but I did. And he ended up in intensive care for two months and I… I’m not ashamed of what I did. I’d do it again. She’s my sister.”

Stiles wasn’t sure why he did it, but he stepped forward and wrapped his arms around Derek pulling him into a tight hug. Derek stiffened in his arms before he relaxed against him, his arms coming up to wrap around Stiles too.

“You’re a better man than me,” Stiles mumbled into his shoulder.

“How so?”

“I would’ve put a bullet in him.”

Derek squeezed him tight again before slowly pulling up to look at Stiles. As Stiles lifted his eyes up to look back, trying not to get lost in the beauty of Derek’s eyes, Derek leaned forward and gently brushed his lips against Stiles’.

“Is this okay?” Derek asked, pulling back a little as his breath came in short pants.

Stiles could only nod before he pushed forward himself this time, locking their lips together as hands pulled them closer together until suddenly, Derek was off of his chair and pushing Stiles back into the worktop.

From there, things became rather heated. Stiles had a hand knotted through Derek’s hair, holding his head exactly where he wanted him while his other hand had snaked around his hip to grab at his ass. Derek moaned into the kiss and pushed forward, hips grinding against Stiles, causing a spark of pleasure to shudder through his body.

“God,” Stiles moaned as he pulled back from the kiss, bending his head back as Derek continued to kiss down his neck. “I have a totally awesome bed.”

Derek laughed softly against Stiles’ throat before making his way back up to whisper in his ear. “What about the food?”

“Screw the food. I have a microwave, we can eat later,” Stiles told him as he pulled him back in for another kiss, glad that Derek didn’t appear to want to argue at all.

Stiles pushed Derek back from him, but only enough so that he could grab him by the hand and all but drag him down the hall and into his bedroom. He only just managed to kick the door shut to prevent any interruptions of the feline variety before Derek was on him again, throwing him back onto the bed and straddling his hips as he leaned down to kiss him once more.

“Wait,” Stiles said, trying to push him off. “Gun. Gun,” he added.

Derek seemed to understand, rolling to the side and kicking his boots off as Stiles quickly made work of his gun belt and dropping it on top of his dresser. He had just kicked his own shoes off when Derek had grabbed him once more, pulling Stiles down on top of him this time.

Stiles slipped a leg in between Derek’s thighs as he reattached their mouths, his hips gently rocking down into the one’s beneath him. Derek’s hands moved all over his body, rubbing and grasping wherever he could – going from his hips, to his shoulders and back down to his ass again – driving Stiles absolutely insane with need.

“Off,” Derek said, pulling Stiles’ shirt out from his pants.

Thankful that he had already unbuttoned the top few buttons, Stiles pulled the shirt up and over his head, smiling when Derek let out a grunt of annoyance at the sight of his undershirt. He pulled that off quickly too, dropping it to the side of the bed with his uniform shirt before sighing in relief at the feel of Derek’s warm hands on his bare skin.

“You too,” he mumbled, reaching his hand into Derek’s open overalls to pull at the wife beater underneath.

Derek pushed himself up to sit, shoving his overalls off his shoulders and yanking the wife beater off.

“God, you’re hot,” Stiles muttered as he pushed Derek back down onto the bed.

“You’re hotter,” Derek told him, licking up his neck to capture his mouth once more.

Stiles desperately wanted to reply to that, but found himself too distracted to Derek’s hands on his ass to put too much effort into it. Instead he pushed his hips down again and into Derek’s, making them both moan and push against each other harder.

“I think,” Stiles began as Derek gripped his hips tight to thrust against him, “I think we should get naked.”

“Good idea,” Derek said with a nod, even though he didn’t let go of Stiles’ hips, or stop moving.

Stiles took it upon himself to do all the work, reaching between them to undo his belt and pants so he could push them off his hips, before dragging the fly of Derek’s overalls down as far as it would go. Derek seemed to get with the program after that, helping Stiles push their clothes off of their hips and down their thighs, underwear following close behind.

“Hnngh,” was all managed to say in reaction as Derek wrapped his extremely large hand around him.

Derek didn’t seem to notice his inability to talk though, instead groaning in pleasure himself when Stiles returned the favour. Stiles wasn’t sure what it was about Derek, whether it was because he was a ‘bad boy’ or because from what Stiles could tell, he actually wasn’t, but touching him, being touched by him, it was the most amazing feeling in the world and he didn’t want it to end.

Stiles wanted to tell Derek how amazing he was, wanted to shout out as loud as he could how absolutely intoxicating everything about him was and just how much he drove Stiles wild. But he couldn’t. He was physically incapable of uttering a single word as Derek quickly and efficiently, pulled his orgasm from him.

“Oh fuck!” he gasped, his hand squeezing tighter on Derek on reflex as he came between them.

“Shit Stiles,” Derek hissed, thrusting up into Stiles’ hand a couple of times before he too shuddered in pleasure and spilled his seed all over Stiles’ hand.

Stiles collapsed on top of Derek, panting for breath as he tried to calm himself down. Derek meanwhile curled his hands around Stiles’ waist, stroking softly as he leaned up to place open-mouthed kisses to Stiles’ shoulder and neck.

“You’re amazing,” Stiles told him, looking down and smiling softly.

Derek, biting on his bottom lip, grinned up at Stiles.

“What?” Stiles asked.

“Nothing,” Derek shrugged. “I was just thinking, ‘Pencil Dick’ was clearly meant ironically.”

“Oh my God!” Stiles blushed, smacking Derek on the shoulder. “Shut up.”


	4. Chapter 4

Stiles woke to the sudden sound of Lady Gaga bursting into song. Sitting upright in fright, he knocked the heavy [arm](../../545931/chapters/999585) off of his waist, waking the man next to him.

“Derek,” he said, shaking him to wake him up further. “I think your phone is ringing.”

“What?” Derek asked, looking up at him through sleepy eyes.

He looked so confused it was absolutely adorable and Stiles suddenly didn’t care why Derek had Lady Gaga as his ring tone, or who would be calling him so early in the morning. He just wanted to lean down and kiss that puzzled look off of his face.

However, Derek appeared to finally wake up and realise that his phone, was indeed blasting Lady Gaga at them from where Derek had placed it on the bedside table the night before. Lying down, Stiles allowed Derek to reach over him to get to it. He held the phone up in such a way that Stiles could clearly see a picture of Peter Pan flashing onto the screen before Derek declined the call and lay back down.

“My uncle Peter,” Derek told him, mumbling into Stiles’ shoulder. “He chose his own ring tone.”

“It’s five am,” Stiles said in reply.

“So?”

“So, maybe he’s calling you for a reason.”

Derek looked up at him, but before he could reply, Gaga started singing again.

“What?” Derek all but growled into the phone as he answered. “I stayed at a friends. Yeah, later.”

Stiles watched as Derek turned the phone off this time and threw it towards where his clothes were piled on the floor.

“Everything okay?” Stiles asked.

Derek nodded, his nose rubbing against Stiles’ neck as he did so. “He was [checking](../../545931/chapters/999585) to make sure I didn’t get arrested again.”

“That’s… nice,” Stiles said, not actually sure what to make of that. After all, Peter had to know why Derek had been convicted before, and bar four weeks prior, hadn’t actually been arrested for anything else in his entire life.

“He was joking Stiles,” Derek said with a sigh. “He was just concerned since, this is the first time I’ve not went home since I… moved back.”

Aka, got released from prison. Christ. Had Stiles been Derek’s first since God knows how long?! “I can see why he’d be worried,” was Stiles reply, as he didn’t actually have any idea on how to ask Derek if he’d had sex since prison, or even if he’d had sex in prison. After all, it wasn’t something you just brought up over breakfast.. “Ooh, you wanna get breakfast?”

“That a good idea?” Derek asked. “I mean, I thought you’d said you’d get in trouble?”

Stiles bit his bottom lip at that. “We could go to that diner out by the Harvest motel on the other side of the mountain? That comes under the next county’s jurisdiction, so I shouldn’t be [recognised](../../545931/chapters/999585).”

Derek was quiet for a moment as he stared up at Stiles. “Do you really want to do this? Go through all of this secrecy and hiding just to see me? I mean, it’s not like we’ll ever be able to have a proper date, or invite your Dad over to watch the game or anything,” he said, making Stiles frown. “I just, I don’t see how you could possibly benefit from all of this.”

Stiles leaned down and placed a soft kiss on Derek’s lips. “I like you Derek. I like you a lot. Yeah, our situation isn’t ideal, but… I’d always be pissed at myself if I didn’t give us a shot. And yeah, we’ll need to sneak around a bit, but it’ll be fun,” he added with a small wiggle of his eyebrows.

Derek snorted in amusement. “You’re ridiculous,” he told him, reaching up and pulling Stiles back down for another kiss. “We’ll go for breakfast,” he agreed. “But after we sleep for another hour at least.”

Stiles smiled and allowed Derek to pull him back down into his embrace as he closed his eyes to attempt sleep once more. Stiles watched him, watched the way his brow evened out and jaw relaxed, taking away the years that prison put on him and making him look even more beautiful than normal. Reaching out, he gently trailed his forefinger down Derek’s side, over his waist and around to his lower back to trace small circles there.

“I could think of better things to do than sleep to pass our time,” he whispered.

Derek’s eyes snapped open again to stare at him. “Show me.”

Stiles leaned over and kissed Derek again, slow and tender, the frantic need he had felt the night before gone and replaced with a craving to take his time and learn every part of Derek’s body, every little moan and whimper and not stop until Derek was an incoherent puddle of thoroughly sexed Adonis lying underneath him.

As he moved his mouth down Derek’s jaw towards his neck, placing soft butterfly kisses wherever his lips touched, Derek wrapped his arms around Stiles and pulled him on top of him and causing their half hard cocks to bump off each other. They slid together slowly, gently rocking against each other in a sleepy haze. As their movements slowly began to speed up, Stiles reached down to grab hold of Derek’s thigh and pulled leg up and around his waist.

Derek happily wrapped himself around Stiles, much like he had the night before. After they had eaten, they had wasted no time in returning to the bedroom, where Derek lay back and allowed Stiles to take charge. It was the hottest thing that Stiles had ever seen and Derek was doing it again.

Changing his grip on Derek’s leg, he pushed his knee towards the mattress, opening him up wide enough to allow Stiles to reach down and gently tease him.

“You okay?” Stiles asked as he pushed oh so lightly against Derek’s opening. If it had been a while since Derek had, had sex, then he was probably still sensitive from their ventures only six hours previous.

Derek nodded, pulling his legs apart even further for Stiles and encouraging him. Stiles quickly licked his finger before returning it between Derek’s legs then captured his lips in a heated kiss. Derek moaned into Stiles’ mouth at the feel of his finger tip slowly move against him. As Derek pushed down against him, looking for something more than just the soft stroking, Stiles began to move down his body, kissing his way over smooth skin and sculpted abs as he made his way to his destination. Derek’s breath hitched a little as Stiles got lower, coming face to face with Derek’s straining cock. But he ignored it, instead licking his way down the crease of Derek’s groin, pushing his legs up and out and not stopping until he was able to sweep his tongue over Derek’s opening and eliciting the most indecent moan from him he had ever heard.

Derek’s legs automatically fell open even further, feet planted on the bed to lift his hips up to give Stiles as much access as possible. Stiles gave him as good as he got, moving his tongue in long strokes over Derek’s hole, before gently pushing in. But it wasn’t enough. Derek was lifting his hips higher and higher, while Stiles buried his face further and further between his legs, neither of them quite able to give Derek what he needed.

“Turn over,” Stiles said as he sat up on his knees, patting Derek gently on his hip.

Derek quickly rolled over, head resting on his forearms, back arched and ass pushed high in the air, just begging for Stiles’ attention.

Stiles didn’t want to leave him waiting too long, so he licked his finger once more, using it to tease Derek’s opening again while he reached over to the bedside table and grabbed what he needed. Tearing open the condom with his teeth, he withdrew his hand back from Derek to quickly pull it on before using both hands to spread Derek’s ass and leaned forward.

At this angle, he had better access and was able to lick long strips from behind Derek’s balls all the way to the top of his ass without having to move much. Derek definitely seemed to enjoy the contact more, groaning loudly and pushing up against Stiles’ face as much as he could.

Stiles would’ve been happy to stay there forever, just taking his time to destroy Derek from the outside in, but over the course of the night Stiles had discovered that Derek was a rather bossy bottom with very little patience and when Stiles ignored his pleas to move things along, he pushed up onto his hands to look back at Stiles and told him if he didn’t fuck him now, he was going to pin Stiles to the bed and ride him like a ‘fucking bronco’.

Stiles couldn’t really argue with that.

Quickly and efficiently, he slicked himself up and prepped Derek as much as he was allowed.

“Now Stiles, God.”

Stiles chuckled softly to himself as he pulled Derek’s hips back towards him. He held him still as he slowly pushed in, gripping hard to make sure Derek couldn’t move. He might be doing what Derek asked, but he was doing it at his pace.

As he slid in, biting his lip to stop himself from moaning like a porn star, he slipped his hand along Derek’s lower back, stroking his fingertips up along the notches of Derek’s spine all the way up to his neck. He gave a gentle squeeze, holding on there for a second before he began to move.

“Fuck,” Derek hissed, head thrown back as he moved against Stiles.

Stiles whole heartedly agreed. Derek was probably the hottest guy he’d ever been with, but he felt… God, he was just incredible.

Leaning down, he placed an open mouthed kiss against the triskelion tattoo between Derek’s shoulder blades and trailed his mouth up until he could whisper in his ear.

“You’re so amazing, I never want to stop fucking you.”

Stiles smiled when he felt Derek shudder underneath him. Yeah, he could happily keep doing this for the rest of his days.

 

~*~*~*~*~*~

It was Wednesday morning. Stiles only had one hour left to go until he was finished his shift. Normally, he would be excited about getting to go home and sleep, but not today. Today he was excited about meeting Derek for breakfast.

As they both were working completely opposite hours from each other, they had decided via a quick text message conversation the night before, that the best they would be able to do until their day off on Sunday, was breakfast. Unfortunately, they couldn’t go too far out of town or else Derek would be late for work, so there would be no hand holding or other public displays of affection like they had been able to do on Sunday.

In the days since they had parted ways on Sunday night, he and Derek had spoken on the phone twice a day – before either of them went to bed – and had conversations via texts throughout the day and night. Some innocent, some not so much. It was, well it was nice. It had been a long time since he’d been in a relationship with anyone, and even though it was all very new and they were keeping it a secret, knowing that there was someone who wanted him, wanted to be with him, well he hadn’t felt this good in a long time.

So, naturally, he wanted to make it last as long as he could. And all the secrecy, would eventually ‘cause problems. Stiles wasn’t so naïve as to think it wouldn’t.

That was why he had spent the last two nights at work reading through every policy he could find to see if it was actually against the rules for him to be dating an ex con. He couldn’t find anything specific and it was driving him insane.

“Tough night?”

Stiles looked up to see his Dad staring down at him, a soft smile on his lips. He had obviously decided to start the day early and had of course walked in on Stiles as he was in the middle of pulling his hair out.

“What?”

“You look tired.”

“Oh, I uh… no. I’m just, trying to find something out.”

“Anything I can help with?”

Stiles sighed. “No. Not really.”

His Dad nodded and stepped away to head into the back.

“Wait, maybe,” Stiles called, halting his Dad’s footsteps. “Uh, hypothetically, can we uh, can we date ex-cons?”

The Sheriff froze and stared at Stiles. “Something you want to tell me?”

“What? No,” Stiles said. Because he really didn’t want to tell his Dad how he had spent all of Saturday night and most of Sunday morning wrapped around Derek Hale. “One of my class mates started dating this girl and he’s just found out she went to prison a couple of times for theft. He asked me for advice and I don’t really know what to tell him.”

His Dad sighed in what could only be relief. “Well, it’s not gonna help him whenever he goes for a promotion. They’ll hold it against him for the rest of his career. But it’s not against the rules,” he said with a shrug.

Stiles felt himself relax at that and nodded. “I’ll let him know,” he said.

The Sheriff nodded and once more moved to head towards his office, but before he could he called back to Stiles. “Of course, if she’s a suspect in an active investigation, that’s a whole other ball game.”

Stiles froze, watching his Dad disappear. All the charges against Derek had been dropped. But then, some of the detectives still thought he was involved in someway. Shit. Stiles was so getting fired. Unless of course, he could find the Argent girl’s killer and clear Derek’s name for good. Yeah, that’s what he’d do.

As he waited for the end of his shift to roll in, he logged into the Argent case and printed off the file. He knew he shouldn’t do it. Not only had he been told to stay away from the case, but taking this home… if he got caught he was in big trouble. Like prosecuted by the DA trouble.

He stood at the printer and watched as it all printed out. Was it worth it? Was Derek worth it? This whole thing was very new and he didn’t really know Derek all that well. He wouldn’t even say he trusted him. Yes he had let him into his home and his bed, but he wasn’t the first guy Stiles had slept with who he barely knew. And he really like Derek. But… he was still an ex-con who had recently been arrested on suspicion of murder. Just because he had very good reasons for what he did in the past, didn’t mean that prison hadn’t changed him in some way. Yes Stiles was almost one hundred percent sure Derek didn’t have anything to do with the murder, but… he just didn’t know him well enough yet.

“Fuck,” he hissed as he hit cancel on the printer, picked up what had been printed and shoved it in the shredder. He’d just have to work on it while he was on shift.

Just as the last of the documents disappeared into the shredder, the front door opened and Jackie walked in.

“Hey Romeo,” she said with a smile. “Just let me get a coffee and then you can shoot.”

“Romeo?” Stiles asked with a frown.

“Yeah, you’re getting laid right? Eddie said you’ve been in a good mood the past few days.”

Stiles rolled his eyes. Damn his nosey co-workers. He gave her a shrug. “Guess I’m just happy my Dad is actually attempting to get us a new probie.”

“Uh huh,” she grinned before disappearing into the back.

Watching her go, Stiles realised he’d had to be more careful. If people thought he was dating someone, they’d start asking questions. Until he could come up with a convincing story, he’d need to be more careful. Pulling out his phone, he sent Derek a quick text.

“Change of plans. Can’t do diner. I’ll bring breakfast to you.”

It was really the best option. It was out of the way, up in the woods where no one would see them and with Peter not there, they’d be on their own. Maybe he’d be able to get a blow job with his pancakes too. One could only hope.


	5. Chapter 5

Stiles sighed and all but slammed his empty mug down when he saw the coffee pot was empty. Was it really too much to ask for people to refill it?

“Seriously?! Takes two fucking minutes!” he called to the half empty office as he set about making a fresh pot.

“What got up your nose?” his Dad asked, arms crossed and disapproving frown in place.

It was Friday night and he had been at work for less than half an hour. His Dad and a few of the other detectives were still there, following up on some leads from the Argent case, although Stiles was pretty sure they were dead ends. He’d been studying the case file every night – even though he had been told to stay away from it – and there was no concrete evidence to pin anyone for the murder. They’d spoken to Matt again as some of Allison’s friends had said he’d been obsessed with her since they’d met the year before, but he was clean. And of course this meant that Derek, strictly speaking, still wasn’t in the clear. That wasn’t what was making him so short tempered though. No, that he could deal with as they would never press charges against Derek without evidence against him. The truth was, he had a couple of other Derek related things that were making him pissed.

Firstly, he hadn’t seen Derek all week. Not since Sunday. And while they spoke on the phone a couple of times and texted each other, it just wasn’t the same. All Stiles wanted was to kiss him and feel those strong arms wrap around him. But, with their shift patterns, it made it almost impossible for them to see each other. And yeah okay, it was a day short of being only two weeks since this all started, and they had only seen each other a total of three times, but it was definitely something special. Not just the sex either. Don’t get him wrong, the sex was amazing, but Derek was just… he was kind and gentle and considerate of what Stiles was feeling. He wasn’t pushing him for more than he could give right now and he listened to Stiles, laughed at his jokes and never told him to shut up or that he talked too much. So yeah, he wanted to spend as much time with him as he could.

Secondly, the station wasn’t getting a new probie. At least, not until Bruno retired next year. They would be getting a part time receptionist instead. Part time as in Monday to Friday, nine til three. Stiles and Jackie would still need to cover the desk the rest of the time and Stiles had no doubt, that he would be doing most of the nights because of Jackie’s child care issues. It was wholly unfair and Stiles had said as much to his father when he hadn’t [denied](../../545931/chapters/1008369) that Stiles would still be stuck in his craptastic shift pattern.

Turning the coffee pot on, Stiles folded his arms, “I’m seeing someone,” Stiles told him.

“Oh,” his Dad said in surprise. “Isn’t that normally a good thing?”

“Usually,” Stiles nodded. “If I actually got to see him.”

The Sheriff frowned in confusion.

“He works regular hours. I don’t. The only day we both have off together is Sunday. But I’ll be sleeping during the day and he’s on call that night. So we still won’t get to see each other.”

“He a doctor or something?” His Dad asked, looking excited at the prospect of Stiles actually having a boyfriend who wasn’t some lazy lay about video store clerk like his last one had been.

“Does it matter?” Stiles asked him. “No. Because if we never get to see each other, then it’s not going to last.”

“So, what do you want me to do about it?” his Dad asked.

“Split mine and Jackie’s shifts evenly.”

The Sheriff sighed. “You know I can’t do that. Her kids –”

“Were born before she decided to join the force,” Stiles interrupted. “She knew she would have to work shifts and she should’ve prepared for it. It’s not my problem if she didn’t.”

“Stiles,” his Dad said in warning.

“No, Dad,” Stiles shook his head. “You either fix this or I apply for a transfer.”

“Under what grounds?”

“Sexual discrimination.”

His Dad and few of the other detectives actually snorted in laughter at that. “Don’t be ridiculous.”

Stiles narrowed his eyes at him. “Fine, if you’re going to be like that, then how does homophobia sound?”

His Dad flinched, a look of hurt flashing across his face. “Now you’re just being an idiot.”

Stiles was too riled up to care if he’d upset his Dad or not. “Really? ‘Cause I remember when I first came out, you weren’t exactly over the moon about it. And you’ve never liked any of my boyfriends.”

“Stiles, just because I didn’t think those boys were good enough for you doesn’t mean I give a shit about the fact that you’re gay,” his Dad told him. “You’re my son and no one will ever be good enough for you. But, I want you to be happy. That’s all I ever wanted. And if your shifts are stopping that from happening, then I guess we’ll sort something out.”

Feeling himself flush at his Dad’s brutal honesty, Stiles just nodded. “That’s all I ask.”

“Good. Now go home.”

“What?”

“Take the weekend. Go see your new boyfriend and chill the fuck out,” his Dad instructed as he started walking away.

“But the front desk –”

“That was an order, Deputy.”

Stiles nodded at his Dad’s retreating back. He knew he’d hurt his Dad, and that never ever would anyone here ever treat him badly because of his sexuality, especially not his Dad, who actually attended Gay Pride with him every year. He was just so fed up with Jackie getting preferential treatment just because she had kids and he didn’t.

Realising he should probably go apologise, he made to follow his Dad, but Bruno stopped him. “Go on home son,” he said, patting him on the back. “Talk to him tomorrow.”

Stiles looked up from Bruno to his Dad’s office and nodded. Bruno knew his Dad pretty well. Hell, he’d known Stiles since he was a baby. He’d been around for all the blow-ups they’d had over the years and knew best out of all the other officers how to handle the two of them.

“Just uh… tell him I didn’t mean it,” Stiles said as he made his way out to grab his jacket.

“Will do.”

Nodding, Stiles made his way out to his car. He climbed in behind the wheel and just sat there. He had no idea what to do. Yeah, he was pissed at his Dad but he hadn’t meant to hurt him. Sighing he grabbed his phone and dialled Derek’s number.

“Hey,” he said when Derek picked up. “Is uh, is your Uncle at home tonight?”

“He’s staying in the city this weekend. He’s got some big case he needs to get ready for Monday,” Derek told him. “Why, what’s up?”

“I had a fight with my Dad,” Stiles told him, letting his head fall to rest on the steering wheel. “He’s told me to take the weekend off.”

“Shit Stiles. I’m sorry,” Derek said. “You want to come over?”

“Yeah. I do. If that’s okay?”

“Of course that’s okay,” Derek told him. “I’m just starting dinner, so we can eat when you get here.”

“Alright. See you soon.”

Stiles hung up and sat back in his seat for a moment. He was truly an idiot. But he knew it’d be okay. He and his Dad fought all the time and they were always okay afterwards. They had to be.

 

~*~*~*~*~*~

“So, what was the fight about?” Derek asked as he sat down at the kitchen table with Stiles, two plates of delicious spaghetti and meatballs in front of them.

Stiles waited for a moment, taking a drink of water as he thought about how to answer that. “Us.”

Derek froze. “Us?”

“In a round-a-bout way,” Stiles shrugged, picking up his cutlery. “Told him I was seeing someone but with my shifts I didn’t actually get to see him. I called him homophobic.”

“Doesn’t your Dad go to Pride every year?” Derek asked confused.

“Yeah, and his face ends up with more and more glitter on it every time,” Stiles nodded. “I was just so angry.”

Derek got up and made his way round the table to Stiles, softly cupping his face. “Your Dad’ll understand,” he told him, leaning down to place a gentle kiss on his forehead. “You two will sort things out. I know you will.”

Stiles nodded and leaned up to give Derek a soft kiss, receiving a smile in return as Derek sat back down.

“He’ll want to meet you,” Stiles said.

“Not ‘til after they catch the murderer though right?” Derek said quietly.

Stiles nodded. “ _If_  they catch him.”

 

~*~*~*~*~*~

Stiles woke to the feel of a strong arm wrapped so tightly around him that he was struggling to breathe. Derek was clinging to him with all his strength, pulling him tight against his rock hard chest. And as nice as it was to know that Derek didn’t want to let go of him, if he didn’t loosen his hold soon, Stiles was going to vomit all over him.

As Derek refused to let go, Stiles did the only thing he could think of and elbowed him hard.

“What the fuck?!” Derek shouted as he sprang back. “What was that for?”

Stiles took a huge lungful of air before answering. “You were trying to squeeze the life out of me.”

“What?” Derek asked, sleepily rubbing his ribs where Stiles had elbowed him.

“Death by cuddling. That’s what the coroner’s report would say. The county would issue a health warning – beware of affection. It kills.”

Derek huffed in laughter and pushed his face back into the pillow. “Sorry,” he mumbled.

“Heartless brute,” Stiles told him before leaning down and kissing his head. “Going to the little boy’s room.”

“Okay.”

Stiles grabbed his underwear from the floor, pulling them on quickly as he made his way out into the hallway towards the bathroom. Derek’s room was at the front of the house, looking out at the long driveway that meandered through the woods. It was a pretty decent view but the one from the back was better. That’s where Peter’s room was though. He had the master – what with it being his house – with his own en-suite. Derek didn’t have his own bathroom, unfortunately. Thankfully though, he was the only one staying with his uncle at the moment so he didn’t have to share.

Stiles quickly took care of his business and washed his hands. He couldn’t find a towel though so he bent down to check under the sink. There weren’t any towels under there either. Just some cleaning supplies. Resigning himself to just drying his hands on his shorts, he made to stand up. But that’s when he saw it.

Sitting behind the bleach and extra packet of toilet paper was a see through, glittery toilet bag. He couldn’t quite see what was in it, but he knew it wasn’t going to be anything of Derek’s and he doubted very much it was Peter’s either.

A cold chill set in his veins. Why would two grown men have a woman’s toiletry bag hidden away? It could just belong to Laura. She could’ve left it here last time she came from a visit. Yeah, he’d ask Derek and Derek would tell him it was Laura’s. End of.

However, it wasn’t quite. He couldn’t quite bring himself to move and didn’t realise he had been kneeling there for so long until Derek appeared at the door.

“You okay?” he asked.

Stiles snapped his head up to look at him and Derek must’ve seen something in his face as his entire posture changed and he rushed towards Stiles.

“What’s wrong? Did I hurt you?”

Stiles shook his head and looked back at the toiletry bag. “Is that your sister’s?”

“Is what my sister’s?” Derek asked as he crouched down to look. He had a confused look on his face at first before he too froze. “That’s not Laura’s,” he said, reaching out to pick it up.

“No, don’t touch it,” Stiles said, quickly shoving him back. “Don’t touch anything under there.” Derek look confused again. “If you didn’t put it there, then your prints won’t be on it.”

“My prints?” Derek asked. “Wait, you think…”

“It doesn’t matter what I think,” Stiles said as he dragged him towards the bedroom. “Neither of us can touch anything,” he added as he stood and all but yanked Derek to his feet, pushing him out. “We need to call my Dad.”

“Your Dad?” Derek asked. “Won’t he… if they find that here, in my bathroom, they’ll arrest me again.”

“They won’t,” Stiles said. “First off, it wasn’t here the last time they searched the house, so it’s been brought in and planked. And secondly, you’re gay.”

“What’s me being gay got to do with anything?”

“God, Jackson’s a shitty lawyer. He should’ve told you this,” Stiles mumbled. “We think Argent’s lover killed her. Who was apparently an older man and who she was seeing long before you got out of prison.”

Derek sucked in a hard breath, realisation dawning on his face. “Peter wasn’t here the night she was found. He said she had some urgent business to take care of.”

“Don’t tell me anything else,” Stiles said as he pulled his phone out his pants pocket.

“Should I be calling Jackson?”

“No. His father is Peter’s business partner. He can’t be trusted. Call your sister.”

Derek frowned. “But she’s a divorce lawyer,” Derek complained angrily, becoming upset with the situation.

Stiles stepped over to him and pulled him into his arms. “It’s going to be okay. Laura will know someone who can help you, and I know you trust her more than anyone.” He felt Derek nod against his head. “And I promise I won’t let anything happen to you. Okay?”

“Okay,” Derek said through a sigh before pushing Stiles back and holding him at arms length. “But you have to go.”

“What?”

“I’ll call the station. I’ll tell them I found it. If you’re not here, then you won’t get into trouble for being with me.”

Stiles could feel himself smile a little as he leaned in to place a soft kiss on Derek’s lips. “You’re sweet. But my prints and DNA are all over this house. They’ll know I was here anyway.”

“Shit.”

“Derek, it’ll be fine,” Stiles assured him. “You didn’t kill her did you?”

“You know I didn’t.”

“Then stop worrying.”

Derek just nodded, turning back to his phone to call his sister while Stiles steeled himself to call his Dad.

“Dad, hey.”

“Stiles, what the hell! It’s the middle of the damn night.”

“Yeah I know but uh –ˮ

“Are you okay? Has something happened?”

“No. I’m fine,” Stiles told him, running his hand through his hair. “I uh… I found something. I think belonged to Allison Argent.”

“What?! Where?”

“In Derek Hale’s bathroom.”

“Derek Hale? Stiles, what the Hell is going on?”

“Look, I’ll explain when you get here. Just… we think it’s Peter.”

“We? Stiles what –ˮ

“Dad, please. You need to call the station.”

There was a long sigh on the other end before his Dad spoke again. “Okay, we’ll be there soon. Just stay where you are and don’t touch anything.”

“I know,” Stiles said. “And Dad?”

“Yeah?”

“I’m sorry.”

“I know kiddo,” his Dad said before hanging up.

Stiles sighed and sat down on the bed just as Derek hung up his call with his sister.

“My brother in law is coming. He works for the DA in New York. He said I’ve not to say anything until he gets here unless you’re with me.”

“Me?”

Derek shrugged. “He didn’t say why. I assume it’s because you know more about the law than I do and I, well I don’t trust anyone else.”

Stiles froze at that. It was only a week ago he had been debating about his trust (or lack of) of Derek. But now… he might not have fully trusted Derek a week ago, but he did now. He had to. Otherwise he wouldn’t have believed a word he had said about the bag under the sink.

“We’ve to stay here and not touch anything,” Stiles told him. “We should get dressed though.”

Derek nodded and looked down at himself, realising that he was still completely naked. “Might be a good idea yeah,” he agreed.

Stiles couldn’t help but smile at that as he turned to pick up his pants from the floor. The rest of his clothes however were strewn all over the house – which his father was going to walk in on – so had to borrow one of Derek’s t-shirts.

“This one?” Derek asked holding up a bright blue Dodgers shirt.

“I’d rather walk out of here naked than wear that,” Stiles told him matter of factly.

Derek rolled his eyes. “Yeah well, I don’t have any Mets shirts,” he said, pulling out a bright purple NYU shirt.

“Purple. As if I wasn’t gay enough,” Stiles muttered as he reluctantly took it.

“I’ll clear a drawer out and you can put some of your, obviously far more superior shirts in there for next time.”

“First,” Stiles said as he watched Derek pull on some sweats and a black wife beater, “hopefully there’ll never be a ‘next time’ of this kind. And second, I think that’s the sweetest thing anyone’s ever said to me.”

“Shut up,” Derek said, throwing a pillow at him.

“No, I’m serious. I’ve never had a drawer before.”

“Never?” Derek asked, crawling over the bed towards him instead of just walking round it like a normal person.

Stiles shook his head.

“Well, I’ve never offered a drawer to anyone before either,” Derek said as he came to a halt, kneeling in front of Stiles on the bed.

Stiles automatically wrapped his arms around him and pulled him in for a kiss. “Can I pick my drawer?” he asked.

“You want to pick your drawer?” Derek asked in amusement.

“Is that a ‘no’?”

“No, it’s a ‘my boyfriend is weird but in a good way’,” Derek explained, making Stiles smile at the use of the word ‘boyfriend’. “Pick any drawer you want,” he told him. “Pick two if you need.”

“I’ll stick with one just now, but I appreciate the opportunity to expand should I need to.”

Derek chuckled and leaned in for a kiss, freezing when they both heard the sound of sirens leading through the woods towards them.

“You ready to face the music?” Derek asked him.

Stiles pressed forward and stole the kiss Derek failed to deliver from him before nodding. “Yeah. I’m ready.”


	6. Chapter 6

Stiles shuffled nervously in his seat, only stilling when Derek reached out to take his hand. They were [currently](../../545931/chapters/1015594) sat in his Dad’s office waiting for him to come and speak with them. They’d been waiting a while now.

When his Dad and everyone else had arrived at the [house](../../545931/chapters/1015594), thankfully, none of them mentioned the apparent strip tease he and Derek had done on their way to the bedroom. They had just walked them out and into the garden, not even stopping to let them put on shoes or a jacket.

Sure they had been given blankets to wrap round themselves while they waited to be escorted back to the station, but they were both still in bare feet four hours later.

They’d both given their statements about what had happened back at the house before being driven to the station, so Stiles could only assume that his Dad was keeping them here to talk to them about, well about them.

And sure enough, as soon as Derek had grabbed his hand, the door to the office opened and in walked his Dad, Steve (one of the other deputies) and some dude Stiles didn’t recognise.

“Okay, so, Steve is here as a witness to make sure I’m going to be impartial,” the Sheriff said, and that’s when Stiles remembered that Steve was the union rep, “and this here is Tom Yates from internal affairs.”

Stiles froze as the man stretched his hand out for Stiles to take. Luckily, Derek was there to nudge him into action.

“Sorry,” Stiles said as he finally shook the man’s hand. “I just don’t understand what this has to do with the IA?”

“Deputy, you are in a relationship with a violent criminal who was recently suspected of the murder his uncle just confessed to,” Yates told him.

“One, Derek’s crime may have been violent in nature, but he is not a violent man and only did what any brother would do in his position. Second, as he and the evidence so clearly shows, he had nothing to do with Allison Argent’s murder. And third, he is not his uncle, he has no[input](../../545931/chapters/1015594) into what his uncle does and therefore is not responsible for his actions,” Stiles said, not realising he had gotten up out of his seat in anger until he felt Derek pulling him back down again, Steve’s gentle hand pressing down his other shoulder.

“And your relationship?” Yates asked, not at all perplexed by Stiles’ behaviour.

“Started two weeks ago,” Derek said, holding onto Stiles’ hand tight. “Also, this should probably wait until my brother in law gets here.”

“You’re not under arrest Derek,” the Sheriff said. “Either of you. We’re just trying to find out how this all started and if it’s going to have any effect on our prosecution of your uncle.”

“It shouldn’t,” Stiles said. “Not if he’s confessed right?”

“It shouldn’t,” his Dad agreed. “But we still need to make sure everything is covered.”

Stiles nodded. This was the first his Dad had spoken to him since he’d called him earlier in the morning.

“If you’re called to witness, and he decided to retract his confession, then it’s likely the defence will pick apart every bit of evidence we just gathered at the house,” Yates said.

“You mean the clothes we dropped in our rush to get naked? Or the semen on the bed and used condoms in trash?” Stiles asked, trying his best to make Yates feel as uncomfortable as he was feeling.

“All of the above,” Yates told him.

“Stiles,” Derek said quietly, giving his hand a soft squeeze managing to calm him in a way no one had ever before.

Letting out a sigh, Stiles turned back to the other three. “Chinese,” he said.

“Chinese?” His Dad asked.

“Two weeks ago. I got off shift and decided to get take out. I got there and Derek had apparently had the same idea. We ended up taking our order back to my house.”

“You just invited someone who had only five days previous, been a murder suspect?” Yates asked.

Stiles shrugged. “It’s not the first time I’ve went home with an insanely attractive man who I barely know.”

“What about you Derek?” Yates asked him.

“I’d say it started with marshmallows,” Derek told him.

Everyone stared at him in confusion. “Marshmallows?”

“Yeah, back in school. Stiles fit like a hundred and fifty marshmallows in his mouth in one go,” Derek explained. “That was the first time I thought about marrying him.”

“You wanted to marry me for my marshmallow eating abilities?”

“I was seventeen. It was impressive. Also, I’d seen you in the locker room. I knew what you were hiding underneath all that plaid.”

Stiles felt himself grin, but was rudely interrupted from declaring his own appreciation of Derek’s teenaged body by his Dad pointedly clearing his throat.

“Marshmallows aside,” the Sheriff began, “you didn’t have a problem with going home with the police officer who led to your arrest in the first place?”

Derek sighed. “It wasn’t personal. Any of your deputies would’ve found me suspicious. Especially given my record. And well, over the weeks when I was coming to sign in, I may have developed a bit of a crush on him.”

Stiles could feel his chest puff out but tried not to appear too ecstatic in case the IA guy took it the wrong way.

“So, you’ve been sleeping with each other for the past two weeks then?” Yates asked.

“Yes,” Stiles nodded. “Although, last night was only the fourth time we’d seen each other.”

“And if I looked at your phone you wouldn’t have naked pictures of Mr Hale on there?”

“He’s my boyfriend,” Stiles said. “Of course I have naked pictures of him on there. In fact, I have a pretty interesting one with him and an or –”

“I think they get it Stiles,” Derek interrupted.

“So last night,” Yates began, changing the subject. “You had been complaining about your shift pattern, so the Sheriff here gave you the weekend off?”

Stiles nodded.

“You went to your boyfriend’s, spent the night there and somehow discovered this vital piece of evidence.”

“I was looking for a towel to dry my hands on,” Stiles said. “I thought it might belong to Derek’s sister, but when I asked he said it wasn’t and well, Peter Hale fits the description so I called my Dad.”

“And you believed Derek? Just like that?”

“Hey,” Stiles said leaning forward. “He had no reason to go anywhere near Allison Argent.”

“He had no reason to beat Mr Phillips to a bloody pulp either.”

Stiles was about to stand up and punch Yates in his smarmy face, but Derek stopped him, holding him back.

“Mr Yates,” Derek said. “Do you have any sisters?”

“I have two, yes,” Yates nodded.

“And I see your married,” Derek added, pointing to the wedding band on his finger, “you got kids? Daughters?”

“I have three daughters,” Yates told him. “Why do you ask?”

“The women in your life, your daughters… if someone hurt them, brutally raped them and left them for dead and got away with it on a technicality… what would you do? Would you just let him walk away unpunished, knowing that he might do it again, to her, to some other girl? Or would you do your best to make sure he could never hurt her or anyone else again?”

The room descended into silence. Derek’s record didn’t include his reason for his crime, so it was a surprise to all of them just as it had been to Stiles.

“I don’t regret what I did, Mr Yates,” Derek said. “He deserved it. But I would never, ever hurt anyone, especially not a young woman who couldn’t defend herself.”

Yates took a moment to compose himself as Stiles clung to Derek’s hand tightly. “What do you know about Kate Argent?” Yates finally asked.

Derek sat up straight, as did Stiles. This was a name he hadn’t heard yet. She clearly wasn’t linked to Allison’s death or it would’ve been in the case file, but yet… there was something strange about the way Yates asked.

“She was the drunk driver who killed my parents,” Derek said.

“She’s also Allison’s biological mother,” Yates said. “Had her when she was a teenager, so her brother and his wife adopted her, raised her as their own.”

“I don’t see what that has to do with anything. Kate Argent is in prison. I was in prison. I didn’t even know Allison existed until I was arrested for killing her.”

“Kate Argent was released a year ago,” the Sheriff said.

“She what?” Derek asked, a look of utter shock on his face. “Why? She still has four years left on her sentence.”

“Good behaviour,” Yates told him. “Doesn’t really matter right now. It’s grounds enough for someone to seek revenge.”

“I didn’t know,” Derek said quietly, looking more shaken than he had when they discovered the toiletry bag.

Stiles didn’t care what anyone thought, he sat up and wrapped his arms around Derek. He knew what it felt like to lose a parent, never mind losing both. And now his substitute parent had been taken away from him too. All because of some drink driver.

“Why are you doing this?” Stiles asked Yates. “Peter confessed. Derek’s Dad was his brother, his twin. So he had just as much a reason for revenge as Derek apparently had.”

“I have to agree,” his Dad said. “I think you have everything you need.”

Yates looked like he wanted to argue, but held his tongue and instead started to gather his things. “Deputy, we’ll be in touch to let you know what our decision is.”

Stiles didn’t even bother replying, too busy trying to keep Derek calm. When Derek eventually pulled away and they both looked back up, only the Sheriff was remaining.

“City police should be transferring Peter back here later this morning,” he said. “We’re going to have to keep searching the house and the surrounding woods for a couple of more days in case he’s moved anything else from his apartment in the city back there.”

“That what he did with the bag?” Stiles asked.

“We think he did it to pin it on Derek. He said he knew about you two…”

“Did you tell him?” Stiles asked Derek.

Derek shook his head. “He might’ve seen the picture I chose for you on my phone though.”

“Do I even want to know?” Stiles asked with a raised eyebrow.

“It’s nothing bad. Just… Woody from Toy Story.” Derek blushed.

“Woody?”

“Yeah, he’s a Sheriff’s deputy,” Derek explained with a shrug as he looked down.

Stiles snorted in amusement. “Do you use Disney characters for all your contact names?”

Derek smiled. “Only the special ones.”

“Boys,” the Sheriff interrupted, making them both blush as they turned back to them. “I’m not going to pretend that I’m over the moon about this. But, Derek, I can’t say that if it was my sister, I wouldn’t have done the same. And since you didn’t have anything to do with the Argent girl’s death… you’re both having dinner with me tomorrow night.”

Derek nodded, but Stiles shook his head. “Don’t you uh, think that’s a bit soon?”

“What? Meeting the parent after only two weeks?” his Dad asked. “Hate to break it to you kid, but I’ve kind of already met him.”

“Yeah, but –”

“No buts. Dinner. Your apartment. That way you can’t escape.” The Sheriff said in a tone that left no room for argument.

“I can make dessert,” Derek said, obviously trying to be helpful.

“You cook?”

Derek shrugged. “Took some classes in prison. I make a pretty good crème brulee.”

Stiles smiled at him. “I cannot begin to tell you how weird that sentence is.”

 

~*~*~*~*~*~

****  
_Eight Months Later_    


“Control to forty-three. Please report your current ten-twenty. Over”

“This is forty-three,” Stiles said into the car radio. “I’m at speed trap four-one-four. Over”

“Sheriff wants you back at base ASAP. Says to drop what you’re doing and haul ass back there. Over.”

Stiles frowned, wondering what the big emergency could be. “On my way. Over,” he said before turning on his siren and pulling out of the turn off he’d been hidden in.

At least once a week he would end up on speed trap patrol. It was probably more boring than working the front desk had been, but it’s what he’d asked for so he didn’t complain.

After Peter had confessed to the Argent murder, he’d been refused bail and sent to a high security prison. Stiles had then been put on suspension while Internal Affairs conducted their investigation into his relationship with Derek. A relationship that, despite the interference from IA, his Dad and Derek’s sister Laura – she had a really weird fascination with knowing absolutely everything about Stiles and his intentions towards her baby brother. It was weird – only grew stronger.

During the month that Stiles had been suspended for, he and Derek spent every night together until a comment from Scot suggesting that they just move in together already, had Stiles putting his apartment up for sale and moving into the Hale house up in the woods.

Turned out, it wasn’t actually Peter’s house. When Derek’s parents had died, they’d left it to Laura. But by then she’d already decided she was going to New York, so it was left to Peter to manage the upkeep of the house. And when Derek told Laura that he and Stiles were thinking of moving in together, Laura happily signed the house over to him.

So sure, six weeks was a very short time to be involved with someone before deciding that co-habitation was a good idea. But they spent so much time together anyway that it made sense. Not to mention, that it was a big enough house that they would be able to avoid each other if they really wanted to have some space. And of course, Geronimo fucking loved it, so Stiles didn’t really have a choice but to stay there forever.

After his suspension – in which he was found to have done nothing wrong – Stiles didn’t go back to working the front desk. And he only went back to working two weeks of nights a month also. The new receptionist had started and so Stiles was put to work straight away, out on patrol.

Some days he would work with Steve, learning from the older man’s experience. But most of the time he was on his own as they were so short staffed, that it was all but impossible to safely police the town when they were paired up. He didn’t mind though. Being on his own allowed him the time to text Derek whenever he wanted or to read his kindle and catch up on his favourite comics. All of which, he couldn’t do when he was in the car with Steve as he didn’t even like the fact that Stiles carried his phone with him while on duty.

So, all in all, things were good. He and Derek had been living together for a little over six months, Stiles was an actual proper deputy, Derek was a well respected member of the community having attended lots of plumbing emergencies in the year since his return, Peter had been sentenced to life imprisonment, only escaping the death penalty because he was on a first name basis with the judge – and his mistress – and now he and Derek were thinking about getting another cat.

He pulled into the parking lot at the station, frowning as he realised that everyone had been called back to the station, not just him.

“We got another murder?” he asked Lydia, the new receptionist as he walked in.

He’d actually went to school with her and she was some kind of genius who didn’t actually have to work but got bored at home, so there she was.

“No,” she said. “But there will be soon if your Dad doesn’t get it fixed.

Frowning, Stiles made his way into the back and was instantly hit with the stench of raw sewage.

“What the hell?!” he asked, noting the two prisoners that had been arrested the night before after trying to shoot each other in a crowded bar, were now handcuffed to a couple of desks.

“Thank God!” Jackie shouted as she ran in from the cells, holding her nose. “You gotta come fix this.”

“Fix what?” Stiles asked as she dragged him through to the cells.

“Stiles!” his Dad shouted. “The crapper’s backed up. I need you to fix it.”

“What?” Stiles asked in confusion.

“We’ve all had a go. None of us can unblock it.”

“And you think I can?” Stiles asked as he tried his best to breathe through his mouth.

“Derek’s a plumber,” the sheriff said.

“Yeah. And?”

“Well… haven’t you picked anything up by now?”

“Oh yeah, ‘cause our pillow talk is really just a shit load of plumber jargon. Nothing sexier than all those back-siphons and u-bends.”

His Dad sighed. “Well we need to do something,” he said, waving the plunger in his hand around in frustration.

“Here’s a crazy idea,” Stiles began, ducking out of the way of the muck that just came flying off of the plunger. “How about I go call Derek? You know, the member of our family who is ACTUALLY a plumber and not completely useless with all of this.”

“You do that,” the Sheriff said, waving the plunger again.

Stiles quickly left and called Derek to explain the situation. He should’ve really went through Derek’s boss, but it was kind of an emergency and they couldn’t wait for someone to become available. The smell alone was bad enough, but they actually couldn’t put any prisoners in there. It was unethical. So it needed to be sorted ASAP.

“So?” his Dad said as he came out into the office just as Stiles ended the call.

“He’s on a job just now, but says he’ll be over straight after,” Stiles said.

“Good,” the Sheriff nodded.

“He’s going to have to fix it on his lunch break you know,” Stiles pointed out.

“So, I’ll buy him some marshmallows as a thank you.”

Stiles felt his face flush in embarrassment. “Can we stop with the marshmallow jokes already? It’s not funny anymore.”

“Are you kidding me? They’re hilarious,” his Dad said with a wide grin as he headed into his office.

Stiles scowled in his direction before going over to his own desk and deciding to catch up on some paperwork while he was there.

By the time Derek got there thirty minutes later, Stiles had actually grown accustomed to the smell. Or at least, it wasn’t as bad as it had been when he’d first arrived.

“Remind me again why I chose plumbing?” Derek said as he stepped into the office.

“Because you like it when I ask you to clean my pipes?” Stiles asked as he pulled him down for a quick kiss.

“Of course,” Derek said with an eye roll. “Hey Sheriff,” he added, nodding in the man’s direction.

“Hey Derek. Thanks for coming so quickly.”

“Not a problem,” Derek told him. “You wanna lead the way?”

Stiles watched them disappear into the cells and turned to back to his desk when Derek shouted on him.

“Stiles! I’m gonna need a hand in here!”

Sighing, Stiles went to see what exactly Derek needed a hand with. “What’s up?” he asked as he came to a stop next to him, hanging over the toilet bowl… which Derek was currently elbow deep in. “Wow, you’re so hot right now.”

“Stiles,” Derek warned. Stiles just stuck his tongue out at him. “I need an apprentice.”

“So? What do you need me for?”

“You’re it,” Derek told him as he stood back up. “I can feel the blockage. Feels like a knife.”

“A knife?” The sheriff asked.

“One of your prisoners must’ve tried to flush it,” Derek said with a shrug. “Now, Sheriff, if you’d be so kind as to get me a bucket?” he asked, to which the sheriff nodded and marched off. “And you,” he added as he looked at Stiles.

“What about me?” Stiles asked with narrowed eyes.

“I need to check the cistern,” Derek explained before smiling and waving his sewage covered gloved hands. “I need you to get my wrench out for me.”

Stiles stared at him for a moment before he burst out laughing. “If only that was the first time you’d used that line on me,” he said as he reached over into Derek’s tool belt.

Derek shrugged. “Works doesn’t it?”

Stiles smiled up at him, “yeah, it definitely does.”

THE END

**Author's Note:**

> my tumblr account can be found here - [always-addicted](http://always-addicted.tumblr.com/)


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